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October 09, 2020
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Perspective.
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This week
One thing I love about writing this newsletter every week is that, unlike a tweet or an instagram comment, I can take my time. Weeks like last one, where major news breaks just hours before I hit send, are pretty rare. So last week's intro was more raw than usual, less considered.
After more consideration, I would write it differently. I wouldn't use the word schadenfreude, because it does not capture the complexity of what I feel about this president, who has shown so little regard for the lives of others, being stricken with a potentially deadly virus. I'd still acknowledge that tiny thrill I felt, but instead of diagnosing that as pleasure in someone else's pain, I'd probably characterize it as a strange burbling hope that maybe someday there will be consequences for the actions of this man and his enablers. I wouldn't use that Melania quote, which as reader Amy pointed out, I took out of context. And I'd write a very different subject line, this time quoting the brilliant Sabrina Hersi Issa: "He is a symptom, not the disease."
This is something else I love about writing a weekly newsletter: I can't go back in time and revise, but I can try to write something better today. The weeks just keep coming, each one a fresh opportunity to find better words to capture the strange experience of being present for this moment in history.
Speaking of staying present in the strangeness, on the podcast we talk about being 6 months deep in this pandemic, and how we're coping.
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I'm reading
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Pie chart
The Debates Pie
Pie charts are brought to you by paying members. Become a paying member for just $5/year. Whew, that's cheap!
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I’m looking & listening
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GIFspiration
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I endorse
Celebrating Indigenous People's Day by knowing whose land you're on.
Native Land is an interactive map that has helped me better understand pre-colonial North America. You can see which Native people live(d) in a given area, the treaties that affected how that land was taken, and the languages spoken there. I linked to the site back in 2017, and it's worth mentioning again because, since then, this site has become a regular resource for me. When I travel (remember traveling?), I like to check the map to find out about the place I'm visiting.
I'm also reading about the importance of tribes controlling their own health data, and ceremony as protest.
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Events
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The Classifieds
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Seeking diverse ideas and interesting commentary? Culture writer Jess Thoms' free weekly newsletter curates the best hot takes of the week.
70 Million is a Peabody-nominated podcast chronicling how communities are taking action to address criminal justice reform in their neighborhoods, from the school-to-prison pipeline to racialized policing to the spread of COVID-19 in jails. Listen now at 70millionpod.com or any podcast app.
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This newsletter is at it, week after week.
Forward it to someone who's always reflecting.
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